1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to printing apparatuses.
2. Related Art
The inkjet printer ejects ink droplets from a nozzle moving in the moving direction and forms dots with the ink droplets landing on a medium (such as paper, cloth, and OHP sheets). In this way, the printer prints a print image made up of innumerable dots on the medium.
When very small droplets of ink are ejected from a nozzle, the flying speed of the ink droplets is lowered due to air resistance, and some of the droplets are scattered inside the printer without landing on the medium. Such mist-like ink droplets are a troublesome contaminant to the printer.
According to a known technique disclosed in JP-A-2002-205415, an ink absorbing material is provided on the side surface of a carriage and mist-like ink droplets are recovered using an airflow created around the carriage when the carriage moves.
In order to recover mist-like ink droplets using such an ink absorbing material, ink droplets carried by an airflow must move at such a speed that the droplets collide against the ink absorbing material. Stated differently, only ink droplets moving at such a speed that they collide against the ink absorbing material can be recovered using the ink absorbing material. Among mist-like ink droplets, some moves toward the ink absorbing material but not fast enough to collide against the ink absorbing material. Such ink droplets cannot be recovered.